This item is available on the Militant Islam Monitor website, at http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/1378

PA continues to venerate suicide bombers

"Palestinians get a taste of their own medicine" by Dr. Daniel Pipes
December 8, 2005

PA Continues to Venerate Suicide Bombers
14:50 Dec 06
By Ezra HaLevi
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/news.php3?id=94312

undefined The Palestinian Authority continues to praise terrorists on its state-run media, despite English-language condemnations sent to journalists following terror attacks on Israeli civilians.



Following Monday's bombing outside a Netanya shopping mall, PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas condemned the attack, giving the reason for his condemnation as: "[It] causes great damage to our commitment to the peace process [sic]." [official PA web site, December 5,2005]

"On the surface, that Abbas condemned the terrorist attack might be welcomed by Western observers," an evaluation of the coverage by Palestinian Media Watch warned. "But it must be noted that PA political leaders have always been careful to specify that they're not condemning terrorism because it's wrong, but rather because it hurts Palestinian interests. In this case, Abbas's denunciation of the attack refers to the damage it caused the PA, not to the terror victims and their families."

The PMW report, authored by Director Itamar Marcus and Barbara Crook, cites several cases of institutionalized glorification of suicide bombers put forth by the PA.

One example is a huge billboard that was erected by the PA next to the Rafiach crossing between Gaza and Egypt last week. The billboard venerated Fatah terrorist Al-Moayed Bihokmillah Al-Agha, who carried out an attack at that very crossing, killing five Israelis in December 2004.

The billboard, displayed on a Fatah military wing's web site.
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The huge billboard was even shown on CNN's coverage of the crossing's opening last month. As commentators gushed over what the crossing, which is free of any Israeli supervision and means for the future of Palestinian statehood, the camera showed footage of the giant sign erected over the site, declaring the crossing's name to be in honor of the Shahid (martyr) Al-Agha, and referring to his attack with the dramatic name, "Volcanoes of Rage."
Sign reads: "Fatah Falcons - The Crossing of the Falcon Shahid Al-Moayed Bihokmillah Al-Agha, Executor of Operation Volcanoes of Rage - Rafiach Crossing 12/12/2004

Al-Agha is also featured in a clip glorifying violence and terror, which can be viewed by clicking here.

"That the PA allowed such a sign to be erected at the site is a powerful message to Palestinians, emphasizing once again that terrorists are heroes," Marcus said.

Other examples of the PA's continued glorification of suicide bombers include the naming of summer camps for suicide terrorists, a soccer tournament named for the suicide bomber who murdered 31 at the Passover massacre in Netanya's Park Hotel, a girls' school near Hevron named by the PA Ministry of Education for a woman terrorist who murdered 37 and a poetry collection produced by the PA Ministry of Culture named in honor of the suicide bomber who killed 21 at a restaurant in Haifa.

"As long as the PA features exciting, terror-promoting videos on its websites, and names streets, schools, summer camps and tournaments after terrorists, its isolated condemnations of terror attacks - worded to placate Western leaders - will be long forgotten by Palestinians, while the infrastructures of hate and terror will last and reverberate," Marcus and Crook conclude. "This leaves lasting impressions on PA youth and creates a new generation of PA terrorists waiting for another target."


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http://www.danielpipes.org/article/3133

Palestinians Taste a Dose of Their Own Medicine

by Daniel Pipes
New York Sun
November 15, 2005

A suicide bombing in Hadera, Israel, on October 26 that killed five people inspired the usual Palestinian joy: some 3,000 people took to the streets in celebration, chanting Allahu Akbar, calling for more suicide attacks against Israelis, and congratulating the "martyr's" family on the success of the attack.

But Palestinian Arabs were uncharacteristically morose after three explosions went off on November 9, killing 57 persons and injuring hundreds, in Amman, Jordan. That's because, for the very first time, they found themselves the main victim of those same Islamist "martyrs."

The massacre at a wedding in the Radisson SAS hotel ballroom took the lives of 17 family members attending the nuptials of what the London Times called a Palestinian "golden couple, beloved of their prominent Palestinian families and friends." The bombing also killed four Palestinian Authority officials, notably Bashir Nafeh, head of military intelligence on the West Bank.

After two decades of doling out this horror against Israelis, some of whom were also attending festive events (a Passover dinner, a Bar Mitzvah), Palestinians, who form a majority of the Jordanian population, unexpectedly found themselves at the receiving end.

And, guess what: They did not like it.

The brother of a woman injured in the attack told a reporter, "My sister, I love her. I love her to death, and if something happened to her, I'd be really..." Choked, he stopped speaking and cried. Another relative called the terrorists "vicious criminals." A third cried out, "Oh my God, oh my God. Is it possible that Arabs are killing Arabs, Muslims killing Muslims?"

I extend my deepest sympathy to the family. I also hope that Palestinian Arabs, who have established a worldwide reputation not just for relying heavily on suicide murder but for doing so enthusiastically, will benefit from this unique learning opportunity.

No other press and school system indoctrinates children to become suicide murderers. No other people holds joyous wakes for dead suicide bombers. No other parents hope their children will blow themselves up. None other receives lavish endorsement and funding for terrorism from the authorities. Nor has another people produced a leader so inextricably tied to terrorism as was Yasser Arafat, nor so bountifully devoted its allegiance to him.

The memorials of his death on November 11 were marked by effusive statements how "he will remain alive in our hearts" and reaffirmations to continue his work.

The Amman bombings, attributed to Al-Qaeda, exposed the hypocrisy of Palestinians and their supporters, who condemn terrorism against themselves but not against others, especially not Israelis. Shaker Elsayed, imam of Dar al-Hijrah Mosque in Virginia, denounced the Amman wedding attack as a "senseless act." Very nice. But Brian Hecht of the Investigative Project notes that Mr. Elsayed has a long history of justifying terrorist attacks against Israelis: "The jihad is a must for everyone, a child, a lady and a man," he said. "They have to make jihad with every tool that they can."

Queen Noor of Jordan embodied this hypocrisy when she stated that the Amman terrorists "made a significant tactical error here, because they have attacked innocent civilians, primarily Muslims," implying her approval had the victims been non-Muslims.

Will the Palestinian Arabs' shameful love affair with suicide killings and "martyrdom" diminish after the atrocity in Amman? Might a taste of their own medicine teach them that what goes around comes around? That barbarism ultimately visits the barbarians too?

Small signs point to a shift in views, at least momentarily in Jordan. Survey research done in 2004 at Jordan University found two-thirds of Jordanian adults seeing Al-Qaeda in Iraq as "a legitimate resistance organization." After the bombings, the pollster found that nine of ten survey participants who previously endorsed Al-Qaeda had changed their minds.

To change Palestinian Arab behavior requires that civilized people finally get tough on suicide terrorism. That means rejecting Hamas as a political organization and excluding dialogue with it. It means shunning propagandistic movies such as Paradise Now, a film that whitewashes Palestinian suicide bombing. And it means convicting Palestinian Islamic Jihad operatives Sami Al-Arian and his Florida cohorts.

The message to Palestinian Arabs needs to be simple, consistent, and universal: Everyone condemns suicide terrorism, unequivocally, without exceptions, whether the arena is electoral, diplomatic, or educational, and whether the bombing is in Amman or Hadera.

From www.danielpipes.org | Original article available at: www.danielpipes.org/article/3133

This item is available on the Militant Islam Monitor website, at http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/1378